How we describe beer

Or, what the eff does Dank mean anyway?

If you’ve ever heard someone describe their pilsner as a “crispy boi” or their IPA as “dank AF”, but not quite knew what those terms mean, I’ve got you. Language is a funny thing and it’s absolutely not universal, so while someone may inherently understand what “horseblanket” means, there are plenty of people who have simply never smelled one and certainly don’t know how it translates to a beer flavour or aroma.

Full disclosure, we spoke about this exact topic on our Beer Ladies Podcast episode, in what will become a whole series of decoding beer language.

So let’s get going - these will only be descriptors that people use for aroma or flavour, I’ll do another list for brewing-specific terms another time.

• Horse Blanket / Funky/Brett: Often you find these terms with farmhouse beers or beers with Brett. Lots of different words to mean something... complex. Horse blanket, Stale Leather, Barnyard. This is a weird one that people can immediately identify or not (based on cultural experience, and upbringing). But my best description is something like hay + the funk you get from sheep’s milk Feta or goat’s cheese. A little acidic, but in a straw-like way.
  Brett is a bacteria that is found on fruit, wood etc. That's why Brett beers are often aged in barrels. It takes a long time to really have a good effect on a beer and is now quite prized, but initially, Brett was the arch-nemesis of winemakers, which is how it landed in our beer vocabulary.

• Complex: This can mean that the beer's flavours are multidimensional - and have depth. mostly this is used for things that are barrel-aged, or that have used wild yeasts. So a mix of malty, yeasty, hoppy and fermentation flavours.

• Esters: These are the fruity aromas that yeast produces. It's not the same as the fruity flavours that fruit itself lends or the fruitiness that hops add. The most significant esters found in beer are isoamyl acetate (banana, pear), ethyl acetate (light fruity, solvent-like), ethyl caprylate (apple-like), ethyl caproate (apple-like with a note of aniseed), and phenylethyl acetate (roses, honey). The ones we most commonly talk about are banana (Weiss), pear (Belgian styles) and apple (can be an off-flavour, but is common in younger beers). Also, English ales are known for their esters.

• Phenolic: Phenols are the spicy compounds that yeasts produce. The best known is clove (Weiss), and pepper (Saison, Wit). Can also be an off-flavour (like solvent) which generally comes down to stressed yeast.

• IBU - International Bittering Unit - a way of measuring bitterness. Pretty flawed since 100 IBU is supposedly the max that a human can perceive, but every person's ability to distinguish the bitterness between beers is quite different and subjective. It’s a calculation based on the Alpha Acids in hops, or the earlier they’re added to the boil the higher the IBU will be.

• Crispy - Crispi Bois are all over. This tends to refer to beers (mostly Lagers, and Pilsners) that finish clean, and potentially with a slightly bitter bite. It comes from beers being called Crisp (as opposed to silky, smooth, creamy, sweet etc.) and for me, just means it's clean, quite dry and with a bit of bitterness.

• Astringent - tough one. technically, it refers to the fact that beer can sometimes be so dry that you are almost more thirsty after a sip. Astringency, to me, is best understood as tannic. Tannins, like in tea. Overbrewed tea tastes like a sharp dryness and that's what you can taste in some beer. This can be from steeping grains too long, steeping husked grains especially. Can also be from a sparge that is too hot.

• Earthy - mostly a descriptor of hops, especially English or German hops. The best way I can describe it is the common components of Beetroot, Dark Chocolate. A pleasant "dirt". Some people find these hops to taste of literal soil though... Fuggles ;)

• Dank - this one came from the old IBU race days. The move from floral, earthy, spicy hops to American hops added pine, resin and dankness to beers. This one is also used in the world of marijuana and since hops and MJ are cousins, it’s a fitting similarity. I think of dank as the smell from a wet pine forest floor, but that's quite specific.

• Food Fruit names:

  • Citrus: basic citrus is a fairly easy one - but take note that it could include orange, lemon, grapefruit, tangerine, clementine and any others. But it can also be jammy or cooked, like marmalade.

  • Pome fruit: Apple, pear and quince. I find these ones quite difficult to pick up unless they’re sharp (like acetaldehyde, which is a sharp green apple aroma - and an off-flavour).

  • Stone fruit: this one is interesting. It includes plums, peaches, nectarines and apricots primarily but there are plenty of other fruits that have “stones” like olives. I doubt that any hop grower would be aiming for those flavours though ;)

Flavour wheel courtesy of the BJCP

Now, look. Identifying flavours in beer would be a lot easier if there was only one - if all we tasted was a singular biscuit, caramel or citrus flavour we’d have an easier time. But even “simple” beers are still a blend of malt/s, hop/s and yeasts which each add their own dimensions. The combination of flavours becomes infinite when you consider the different varieties of grains, hops and yeasts that go into any beer.

A lot of these terms can seem pretentious or uppity, and there’s very likely an aspect of beer judging that swings towards snobbery. If you are one of the trained few who describe each beer, or feel a need to rate it - just be aware that those who are still new to it, or who don’t care whether it’s tangerine or clementine they’re tasting it can come across as gatekeeping. Not everyone wants to engage in such a detailed analysis of their drinks, and that should be ok too!

For beginners on the journey, the best advice I can give you is to close your eyes when tasting a beer and just be conscious of what you’re smelling/tasting. It may not jump out at you yet, but this is a trainable skill and it takes time and calibration to develop. Half the skill in being a Beer Judge is being able to taste mindfully as opposed to mindlessly. Appreciate your beer, note down what you taste (or don’t taste!) and figure out which flavours you like and dislike - soon enough you’ll be more proficient in descriptions than before.